Reviews tagging 'Miscarriage'

The Queens of Innis Lear by Tessa Gratton

15 reviews

cmbohn's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I wanted to love this book. I love Shakespeare retellings. I love magic. It seemed like a perfect combination.

Instead I am conflicted. The characters were well done. But the story was SO SLOW. Elia dithered for hundreds of pages. The writing was beautiful, but sometimes too much. So many descriptions! And then so many POVs. I mostly enjoyed that part. 

This one is hard to rate. I feel like it will really stick with me, but it had too many flaws for 5 stars. And the ending made me mad. So I'm going to leave it at 3.5 for now. 
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rachel_faerie's review against another edition

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slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.25

The only reason this isn’t getting a 1 is because it was technically written well. Like the prose was nicely done but unfortunately the characters were boring and the plot was boring and way too slow to hold my attention. Only reason I didn’t DNF is because I had the audio from my library lol
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lyndann's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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feidlemid's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious relaxing slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The book has amazing writing! However it is very slow. It took me four months to read it... The characters though are so well fleshed out that I knew who was exactly even when I had to pick up the books for days!


Morimaros is AMAZING. I cannot believe that Elia said no to marriage when they are so cute together. He would offer everything for her and he would be the perfect match for an independent queen. Well it is an open end book so in my head they are together..
Gaela was a strong character that I did not like but her ending was out of character.
Regan is amazing, dark and a little crazy. I loved her ending so much and the way it was described.
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mistermatthias's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I really enjoyed this novel. It had a lot more depth to it than many novels I have read as someone who is just getting back into reading for fun. 
There were a couple times where I got a little lost in the details, but the overall narrative was gripping and exciting!
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the_bees_books's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

An adaptation of King Lear that is a deep dive into the relationship between a father and three sisters divided, even if the pacing, the convoluted plot, and the ending might be sticking points for some. 
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janelleg9014's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

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cerilouisereads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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chalkletters's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

The Queens of Innis Lear is the second retelling of King Lear that I've read, and because I still haven't read the original play, I enjoyed trying to reverse engineer the plot from the similarities between this and A Thousand Acres. It's particularly interesting to see which of Lear's three daughters are treated most sympathetically. While Tessa Gratton really made me feel for Regan, The Queens of Innis Lear was definitely the story of Elia (our Cordelia stand-in).

Caroline warned us that The Queens of Innis Lear was long, but I was glad it was, because it allowed the political and emotional situation to spin out slowly, details piling up one after the other so that I always felt I understood what was at stake without long passages of exposition. The only place this didn't entirely work was in the relationship between Elia and Ban, which I felt quite impatient with at first — though I forgot that as soon as they could actually speak to one another rather than being in separate countries.

Given the tensions that mount up throughout the story, Tessa Gratton pulled off an impressive feat by making me feel for almost every character — with the notable exception of Ullo, whose perspective we are never given. I particularly loved Aefa, whose power to manipulate the plot is far more limited and who therefore has to think very differently from everyone else. Character motives were always understandable, without the reader being hit over the head with them. The one exception was Rory's realisation and return to Innis Lear, which seemed to come out of nowhere.

Elia's journey and philosophy were definitely the most absorbing, and I wanted to see her succeed. Without spoilers, I can say I was a little disappointed in the ending. From certain things Elia said, as well as Regan and Conley's relationship with Ban, I thought she was hinting at a way The Queens of Lear could end to (nearly) everyone's satisfaction. Maybe it was naive of me to think that would happen in a book based on a tragedy, but nonetheless, I felt as if the actual ending was one of relief rather than satisfaction.

Despite the ending, I want to read the rest of the Innis Lear series, and have added Tessa Gratton to my list of authors to follow.
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rchristine11's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

I didn’t care for this book as much as I’d hoped. Perhaps I’d have liked it if I was more familiar with Shakespeare’s King Lear.   I didn’t care for the writing style or the characters. But book ratings are subjective and maybe the parts I dislike are someone else’s favorites. 
I found the detail that the miscarriage was written to be gratuitous and it was very upsetting to read. I honestly believe that level of detail was NOT necessary. 
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